Environmental News: Media Center

The third major Northeast blackout since 1965 smashed through multiple safeguards, and far too little is known about its causes to point fingers or draw final conclusions. The complex interstate (and international) system that collapsed is designed to survive the loss of any single major component, so it is safe to predict that multiple failures will emerge as "the cause"; no single power plant or transmission line outage could have yielded this result.

It is also extremely unlikely that power supply inadequacies will figure in any way in the final diagnosis; the region in question currently has ample generating capacity, with significant additions in the last five years, and weather conditions on August 14 were not close to breaking records. More plausible is the possibility that one or more transmission operators violated voluntary regional reliability rules; investigations are underway. Despite many media references to pending "comprehensive" federal energy legislation as a potential solution, almost none of that package addresses the reliability of the interstate power grid.

Several points on interstate grid reliability clearly bear increased emphasis in the aftermath of this massive disruption, however:

• Congress should stop holding grid reliability provisions hostage to unrelated porkbarrel energy legislation. Five years ago a bipartisan task force warned the Department of Energy that Congress needed to charter new institutions to set and enforce reliability rules for the interstate power grid; the task force concluded that "[f]ailure to act will leave substantial parts of North America at unacceptable risk." Consensus-based legislation executing this recommendation is still buried in energy bills loaded with unrelated provisions; Congress should break the reliability provisions free and pass them immediately.
  
  
• The fastest, cheapest and cleanest way to relieve dangerous grid congestion is still to reduce demand and improve the efficiency of electricity use. The blackout hit at 4 pm on a hot and humid day with air conditioners humming across the system, underscoring the potential value of more efficient air conditioners (and other equipment) and the particular inappropriateness of the administration's earlier decision to roll back air conditioning efficiency standards. Congress could help with tax credits, such as those of S. 507.
  
  
• We need more investment in technologies to update and enhance the interstate transmission grid. The Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) points out that, as a fraction of utility revenues, transmission investment today is only about half of the low levels recorded during the Great Depression. Yet a host of technology upgrades are available, many of which do not require the construction of new lines. The infrastructure crisis reflects uncertainty about whether and how this investment will be recovered as state and federal regulators continue to debate the future of the electricity sector. We need better cooperation among the regulators, and a full evaluation of all available ways to upgrade transmission systems, including demand reductions and improved controls and materials in addition to new lines.

The Natural Resources Defense Council is a national, non-profit organization of scientists, lawyers and environmental specialists dedicated to protecting public health and the environment. Founded in 1970, NRDC has more than 550,000 members nationwide, served from offices in New York, Washington, Los Angeles and San Francisco.